


All Roads Lead to This

by hellorhogwartsfics



Series: All of These Stories [2]
Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra
Genre: Angst, F/F, Fluff
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-07-23
Updated: 2017-11-24
Packaged: 2018-07-26 08:14:16
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 15,333
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7566826
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hellorhogwartsfics/pseuds/hellorhogwartsfics
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Three years after Vegas, Korra and Asami have settled down, but what happens when the world finds out they're conceiving one of the few first same sex parented child?</p><p>(What's Vegas you ask? Only My What Happens in Vegas AU - All These Lines are Blurring check it out!) http://archiveofourown.org/works/4383635/chapters/9950870</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Asami glared hard into the steering wheel she was gripping. Despite the countless hours she’d spent psyching herself up to drive to this exact spot, her mind was spinning. The dizziness felt life altering, still she collected her thoughts into three words in an uncertain tone.

“We’re doing this.” Korra’s fingers warmed her own atop the wheel, squeezing comfort into the knuckles turning white.

“Only if you want to.” her voice was flat, not unfeeling, just as scared, not tugging one way or the other, “Say the word - I’ll get behind the wheel and we wont stop driving till Canada.” 

Asami felt her own lips smirk as she remembered either way it was Korra; and she loved her no matter what. As much as she knew the heiress’ heart, Asami knew Korra, and she’d always wanted this. What started out as a reflection soon became her own desire. 

“I mean I could carry- we’ve been over this no I can’t - but a surrogate, with your egg and my whatever they’re taking from me in there God I hope it’s not bone marrow the needles on TV are always so big-”

“The procedure has already been developed it’d cost more money to change it now.”

“Can’t be that much to add on I mean how much have they spent already extracting eggs and firing nucleuses-”

“Four million dollars.”

“Holy Hell! And we’re getting this pro bono are they nuts?”

“I want this.” Asami sat back in her seat, “I want to do this. I want our lives to change,” She loosened her grip on the wheel, and turned to see her wife, crouched on the edge of her seat as if watching the final minutes of a soccer game. She touched her cheek by instinct, one that was correct because she let out a gasp of relief at the contact. Craving more she leaned over the console and wrapped strong arms around her, burying her face in her wife’s shoulder. 

Asami felt all the tension drift out of her as she melted against her and Korra surmised.

“What change? We’ll still be us, we’ll just be smelly poop and puke covered overworked breeders like everyone else.” the carmaker laughed against her collar only to have the embrace tighten.

“Who have sex on Wednesdays.” 

“Wednesday will be sex night, yes. Wait but that’s a school night!” Asami couldn't help but imagine it all. Cheek aligned with Korra’s shoulder, she bit her lip to hide her smile. 

“They’ll be in bed early.” she concluded. 

“Yeah but you might wake them up because well - loud.” 

“Do you want sex or not?”

“Well Opal bought us a dildo, it won’t take much convincing to get her to buy us a-”

“If you say gag I’m divorcing you.”

“I love you.” 

“I love you too… Promise me something.”

“Shoot.” 

“We cant take each other for granted.”

“I’ll kiss you every day, ” 

“Promise?”

“I can start today.” Korra vowed, pulling back to taste her lips. “Every morning and every night. You’re gonna think holy shit, she’s been taking me for granted this whole time, cause this is like being held up on the highest of high pedestals. I will give you foot rubs and lap dances and food…”

“I’ll settle for diaper changes and midnight feeds?” 

“Alright, never done that before but ok,” 

“We’re so unprepared,” 

“So is everybody.” Korra leant back, crooked smile confident, “Since the beginning of time,” 

***

This was one of 273 numbered days. Korra knew it as her lips pressed against her wife’s stomach for the thousandth time. She’d lost count already, they were partway through the seventies, Asami hardly even showing. The athlete swore could feel the difference against the pads of her fingertips.

“Are you going to let me sleep or just keep mouthing into my tummy all night long?” the heiress teased.

“We’re having a conversation.” Korra explained, brushing her hands over the hems of Asami’s shirt and shorts. “It’s important to be verbal from the beginning.”

“Care to clue me in?”

“Hold on let me ask.” She lifted her shirt higher to press kisses over her skin. The heiress rolled her eyes before she closed them, combing her fingers through Korra’s hair and enjoying the catharsis it gave her.

“No biting!”

“I’m asking,” 

“Korra!” she felt her teeth tracing her now as the athlete grinned against her, “I will not let you give my baby bump hickies!”

“Mmm because its going to bother the peach you have in there.”

“The doctor said at this point its more of an avocado.”

“Hmm so right well the avocado requests that you ask again in six months.”

“I’ll be sure to do that, oh and inform the child they are now grounded until they’re forty.” Korra laughed and pressed another loud kiss against her. The sound alone threw the heiress back to their first, excited, desperate kiss. To the forefront of her mind came the light, the heat, the unfortunate location.

“I’ve been thinking.”

“Do you have your notepad?” Asami bit down on her smile as Korra’s response, she loved how she knew her so well.

“Not like that.” Korra raised her eyes toward her now, bright, sweet, completely awake despite it being past midnight, “We got together by chance.”

“I’d say we were pushed by fate. Hard.”

“No, no really, we weren't going to tell each other how we felt - we had no way of knowing that it was the same. It was those cards, it was random selection. Any one could have been picked.”

“I don’t know, I don’t know if I could stand seeing you giving anyone else a,” Korra covered Asami’s stomach with her palms now as though a child’s innocent ears before whispering “lap dance.”

“Anyone could have gotten those cards, and I never would have danced for you.” Korra, rolled off her, musing for a moment what that would have meant, and felt a spike of dread, coupled with the relief of a bullet dodged. Eyes wide she deadpanned.

“Mako could've been made to dance for me.”

“That would have been hilarious.”

“Are you kidding it would have been terrible!” She buried her face in sheets, as the heiress stifled her laugh, “The man has no butt! That boy has been doing the two step as his go-to since second grade!”

As the Water Tribe princess imagined the chilling alternate universe, Asami slid along side her, admiring the dip between her shoulder blades before pressing a deft kiss of her own between them.

“I’m glad it was us though.” Asami told her. Korra looked up her her, biting her lip, shy, open despite being half buried.

“I’m glad it was us too.” Korra manoeuvred herself again, and this time moonlight hit her and Asami saw the look that told her she was being adored, from her eyes to her lips to her toes and everything else, every which way.

“I always would have found you. You know that right?” Asami breathed, a hand still tangled in the curls at the back of Korra’s neck. The athlete moved close, smile tugging at her lips as she gravitated, noses bumping gently before responding with an exquisite, surprising, open mouthed kiss. It lasted a second before she told her. 

“I know.”

Coming apart for Asami however was like being deprived of air, her breath skipped and with her grip, in the dark, she pulled her back, instinctively finding her way again. 

 

***

 

“How is this slot B?”

“Asami?”

“How is this even remotely shaped like a B?” The wood in the Heiress’ hands gave resounding crack. 

Korra watched, trying and failing not to grin at something so rare. Blushing with furious embarrassment, her wife trying, and failing to piece together a flat pack build-a-crib, having just snapped the crux of a hinge she appeared to be biting back a scream. She’d been crafting for almost two hours, and had managed no more than a lopsided trojan horse skeleton.

“I’m going to sue these people sooo much,” Asami seethed. Tossing the pieces of varnished wood piece by piece from her lap. 

“Baby, not to put a damper on what’s pitching to be an epic bitch fit but…We won’t need a crib for another, ooh say six months?” If looks could kill Korra would have spontaneously combusted. “You want to shove that stick in your hands somewhere dark don’t you?”

“I’m thinking about it yeah.” Asami flashed her a devious smile before looking down at her creation and massaging her temple. Korra kneeled in front of her, tactically edging the crib shards away with her fingers. 

Asami looked over the crumpled instructions once more. “I went to MIT.” she breathed simply. 

“I know.” Korra reached for her crossed ankles, “Give me your feet.”

“What?”

“Haven’t you learned by now never to question my odd unrelenting requests?”

“I always question,” Asami surmised, letting Korra wrap her hands around her calves, “You do what ever you want anyway.”

“I want you to stop stressing.” Korra told her, fitting each of her wife’s leg against and over her hips so she straddled her. Without asking she took her hands next and guided them towards her shoulders. “Look deep deep into my eyes.” she ordered in a hypnotising tone that Asami could only raise her eyebrow derivatively at.

“Am I getting sleepy?” the heiress drawled.

“No,” Korra grinned smugly, her own palms warming Asami’s shoulder blades, keeping her close, her breath pooling on the heiress’s lips. Well her eye’s are swimming, she admitted silently, feeling calm envelope her in wave after wave of her warm gaze. “I want you to clear your mind,”

“Oh hello Tenzin-” 

“and think; of how far we’ve come. We’ve overcome impossible odds to be together, too stubborn to see what was right in front of our eyes until the first night we kissed…” 

The heiress felt her chest tighten as Korra trailed the blade of her lips over the edge of hers, still she was curious, so caught her breath to jeer,

“And got married, exchanged lap dances, adopted a chicken…”

“Will you shut up I’m trying to be romantic?”

“Right sorry - carry on Romeo-ette.”

“And now we’ve defied biology itself to parent this miracle growing inside you,” Korra caught herself and whispered between them, “Not of course to put too much pressure on you kid, you can be as mediocre as you want to be.” Asami smiled at the idiot she married and scratched the base of Korra’s hairline affectionately, “We are both capable of great and important things, which is why I feel I have to tell you…” Korra craned her neck as though parting with a precious secret, lips ghosting over the heiress’ “you’re better than an IKEA flat pack furniture set.” 

“You’re such a dork.”

“I know.” the athlete nodded before pressing her soft lips to rouge ones.

Asami felt herself melt against her, and the kiss deepen as she angled her head. This was her favourite place, being slotted against her wife like a half heart pendant. 

“My evil plan worked,” she murmured lovingly against her, enjoying the press of Korra’s lips now stroking the column of her throat.

“That I take pity on the genius struggling with the step by step and make out with her?” 

“I have played you like a fiddle,” the heiress crowed, arching back, wrapping her legs around her hips.

“Oh I feel betrayed,” Korra lamented, her voice taking on that classic playful lilt, sliding her palm over her breast, “So very betrayed.” she let out a laugh before tugging her shirt apart lovingly and kissing the skin beneath.

Asami let out a sigh of pleasure as she combed her fingers through her wife’s hair indulgently.

“Oh God…”

“I know and I haven’t even gotten your top off yet,”

“No it’s almost two.”

“What about two?”

“Playdate,” the heiress groaned into her hand as Korra pouted up at her, chin propped over her sternum. 

“Three years you’d think we’d get a handle on timing.”

“Come on Rohan will be slamming on that door any minute now.”

“I only need three to have you screaming my name,” Korra offered, tactically accidentally flexing her hands within the seams of Asami’s shirt.

“We both know that once is never enough for you.”

“I cannot be to blame for how good you sound when you cum.” Korra surmised before kissing her wife’s stomach with an indulgent loud smeck. “and cum.” Korra added hands reaching the seam of her underwire, “and cum.”

Asami tried to keep her eyes open at that moment, she tried to avoid the relentless memories that assaulted her vision, and ghosted over her lips at the raw magnetism of Korra’s voice. Those spirits told her she craved the taste of Korra’s sweat, her thong pushed aside, her toes made numb. Who was she but a mere mortal to deny the cosmos what her body desired?

Blind, her fingers found silken locks, and lips parted to command in an as even tone as she could, only wavering with the last syllable.

“Two minutes.” before yanking her wife up so she could capture her lips in a clumsy albeit passionate kiss. 

Korra complied happily, with precision and fervour her fingers slipped into the heiress shorts and found their mark.

XXX

Jinora rang the doorbell of this frankly ostentatious goddamn door for the sixth time. 

If they are fucking I swear to christ I’ll…wait would they really care at this point if they’re sex tape got out again?

Finally the door ripped open, a tousled Korra and Asami, smiling and guilty and wreaking of sex. 

“Hey you guys!” Rohan crowed dashing forward to wrap his arms, barely, around them both.

“Hey Rohan, Jinora,” Asami greeted them tousling the boys hair, before Jinora pointed at her chest and said.

“Korra’s shirt.” she shifted her finger to the pant legs bunching around Korra’s feet, “Asami’s pants.”

Korra’s smug grin shattered to what could only be interpreted as a silent scream haloed by fresh and angry lightning, for all of half a second before schooling her face.

“Ok! Who wants lunch?” Asami yelped, tugging on Rohan’s arm, ears red.

“You can’t lay off for sixty seconds?” Korra asked the stunt double.

“Do you really want me to answer that?” Jinora asked the athlete.

“Point taken - question rescinded.” Korra rolled her eyes and shut the door behind her. “So what exactly is the business you have with my wife today?”

“Aside from watching you practice your parenting on my brother? Who by the way is known by his teachers as the whirlwind of chaos,” Jinora studied Korra’s expression for a moment before going on, “she has a prototype for me.” 

“Are you beta testing the new brand of muzzles?” 

“Ha ha glider suits actually.”

“Holy shit she actually did it.” 

Jinora grinned happily, following her brother into the kitchen to find Asami answering some very awkward questions.

“Sometimes, when a woman loves a woman very much - they share each others clothes.”

“But Korra’s shirt is too short on you…”

“I like the smell,” Asami plastered her grin big, sliding a can of coke in front of the tiny detective, despite how red her cheeks were glowing, “when couples love each other they love each other’s smell.”

“Even farts?”

“Even farts.” the heiress confirmed, tipping her own drink towards him, “cheers.”

“Adults are weird.” the boy surmised slurping greedily at a drink he was in fact banned from.

“Oh this’ll be hilarious.” Jinora mumbled under her breath. “Right Sato,” both Korra and Asami snapped their heads her way, “The original Sato. I’ve got a call time across town in about four hours, shall we throw me off your roof?”

“Right Korra, theres PB and J stuff in the cupboard-“

“Wait we’ve started this thing and five minutes in I have to look after this precious gem alone?” Korra lamented, throwing her arms dramatically around Rohan’s shoulders.

“I’m sure you can raise him just fine until we get back.” Asami rolled her eyes, 

“You’re right!” she surmised triumphantly, “Rohan is not my son but I shall raise him!” Korra grinned  
lifting Rohan up high above her head, muscles bulging as the boy tensed by instinct but giggled all the same.

“Ok cool your jets hot shot.” Asami teased sauntering past her wife, not before squeezing her arm and biting her shoulder as Korra lowered the boy onto the kitchen island. 

Korra couldn't help but watch her leave with her lower lip clamped between her teeth.

“Someones in love,” Rohan teased,

“Shut up squirt.” The athlete gushed defensively, tickling his ribs for good measure, “what do you wanna do today?”

“Hide and go seek!” 

“You just want to snoop on all ‘Sami’s inventions.”

“Yes!”

“We got a little cabbage corp spy here,” 

“Meelo said he better tested her Virtual Reality game! That he got the high score and I could never catch up!”

“Okay okay, you’ve twisted my arm,”

“Yes yes yes!” the younger boy hissed, rolling from the table and somehow landing on his feet, sprinting left out of the kitchen. “I wanna play the dinosaur one, and the flying one and the one that makes people throw up!”

“Did he tell you the room’s on the right side of the house?”

Rohan sprinted back in the opposite direction.

“So nobody’s getting lunch,” Korra sighed.

THREE HOURS LATER

“Korra?”

The athlete had poked her head into one of the many bedrooms, spotting a figure, but not who she wanted. Jinora turned to her tying her hair into a bun and unzipping the shoulder of the first layer in the Sato Glider suit.

“Yes Jinora.” Korra stood up straight, but the guilt was clear on her face.

“Tell me you have not lost my brother in your labyrinth of a mansion.”

“I have not lost your brother in my labyrinth of a mansion.”

“You haven’t?”

“He’s hiding.”

“And that’s better?”

“Well he wanted to play hide and go seek.”

“That’s a mistake,”

“But then he wanted me to show him the Virtual Reality room,”

“Even bigger mistake,” Jinora folded her arms, eyebrow raised, watching her older friend squirm just a little.

“Did I mention this was practice? Some advice on child rearing might've been nice before you let us borrow the whirlwind.”

“Relax Korra, he’s a resilient kid, regularly throws himself off of trees to get down faster. What happened next?”

“We put on the goggles, I could see him we played, flight simulator your grab the coins in the air and it feels like you’re flying, we finish the game - I take them off and he’s disappeared.”

“Oh crap.” the humour drained from Jinora’s voice.

“Oh crap what oh crap?”

“You had to show him that particular game?”

Jinora started marching this time, her brother had latched and she knew it. As Korra followed her sinking feeling went from bad to worse, because they were going up. Jinora burst into the makeshift attic lab, Asami had created.

The heiress herself followed in with her tablet, swiping wildly as she filled in notes and numbers.

“Hey Jinora that last test, superb I think we might’ve put a dent in this whole thing - what’s wrong?”

The stunt double didn't say anything, the she went for the open door, but Korra was faster. 

Asami heard the boy yell,

“I’m king of the glide!” before yelping as he toppled. She made it to the door as Korra leapt after him. 

“Oh!” was all Asami could managed as the pair leapt, and in a stunning view of her cameras which filmed the accidental experiment from seven different angles inside.

“Korra?”

Silence, awful, terrible silence was all that followed. Until Jinora, kneeling at the edge of the top of the heiress’ childhood home, started to laugh.

“Naga!” Korra crowed and Rohan howled with his own laughter. The dog had jumped into the foam pit below, a trench of cushions and foam that spanned twenty feet wide and fifty long. The perfect landing pad for a glider suit, or a boy who wanted to fly. 

“That was great.” he surmised sitting up,

“Don’t ever - ever - do that to me again Rohan!”

The boy shrugged off being chewed out like it was a minor irritation, but turned around to stare behind him.

“Did you know there is a man in your tree?”


	2. Chapter 2

 

Rohan jittered and shivered, for for the eleventh time in his life; he was on a sugar rush come down.

 

“You fill up on that bread,” his sister ordered, slapping a cold flannel on his already sweating forehead. It was the sugar beading from the boys pores that was in fact causing him more discomfort than the fact he’d just leapt off a roof.

 

“ _You did this to me_.” the eight year old seethed, left eye twitching sporadically. 

 

“Korra did this to you.” Jinora corrected.

 

“You _helped_!” he snapped before barking back at Naga who had yapped at him for yelling. 

 

“Jesus he’s like a gremlin.” Asami remarked, still shivering with shock herself, “Are you all like this when you’re small?”

 

“The girls no, the boys _oh yes_ , if he’s like dad he’ll mellow out when he’s like forty.”

 

“Wow,” Asami’s eyes went wide, “ _wow.”_

 

“You’ve known him all his life you know what he’s like”

 

“No I can’t imagine Tenzin being _crazy,”_

 

“There was a motorcycle.”

 

“Hot _damn_.” Asami breathed, “Can I leave you with him I’m just going to see if Korra, she’s-alright.” 

 

“Sure you go - I’ll mind the gremlin,” Jinora chagrinned.

 

“Um Rohan,” The heiress blanched, in that moment she remembered she’d never spoken to Rohan without following her wife’s lead. Suddenly all she could think was how this could all have gone a whole lot worse. Mouth suddenly dry and this eight year old suddenly taller than a sky scraper she gulped and felt her voice squeak out - “Do you need anything? Maybe a blanket?”

 

“M’okay ‘Sami.” Rohan mumbled well meaningly as he jittered.

 

“Good, good….Good boy.” she realised how that sounded after she said it, she smiled weakly as she prepared to stand straight and cease embarrassing herself in front of this small child.

 

She waved on her way out, and considered the possible benefits that came with such a gesture to someone three feet in front of you.

 

There were none.

 

“Hey there,” she found Korra, perched at the edge of her side of the bed, head in hand, phone in the other. “You okay?”

 

“Oh you know,” Korra lilted, rubbing her eyes before turning them to her wife, “as good as one can be after throwing an eight your old off one’s wife’s mansion…”

 

“That’s _our_ mansion.”

 

Korra hummed, and not in agreement as such.

 

“Is he okay?” she changed the subject.

 

“Detoxing.” Korra shot her a perturbed look, “Jinora failed to mention his sugar addiction.”

 

“I suppose that should make me feel better?”

 

“Maybe a little.” The heiress offered. 

 

“The man in the tree?”

 

“Gone, according to security. Paparazzi - am I right?”

 

“They’re just trying to make a living.” Korra hummed picking at the linens. 

 

Korra tucked her feet under her to let Asami sit beside her, clutching a cushion to her chest, teasing her adrenaline headache with thumb and forefinger. The heiress took her palm away and pressed her thumbs into the pressure point at its centre. Part of Korra’s brain marvelled at how subtly this worked her physical pain away, and the rest raged in an emotional cyclone.

 

“What are you thinking?” The heiress added.

 

“That today was a test…” Korra drew hew thumb over Asami’s gently, “and I failed.”

 

“ _You_ were just a teeny tiny little bit out of your depth.”

 

“And _that’s_ supposed to make me feel better?”

 

“I’m not doing well I know but I was working up to something.” 

 

“Well it better be good.”

 

“He is level _eight.”_

 

“You mean years old?” 

 

“Yes he has had eight years to be a mischievous, quick thinking and hyperactive little boy,”

 

“That’s right and I’m level twenty eight and he has defeated me - a kid has defeated me.”

 

“No you’re a level zero,” the heiress corrected punctuated her last word with a prod to the athlete’s stomach.

 

“Thanks! I feel loads better!”

 

“You’re a level zero _parent_.” Asami stopped applying pressure to just hold her hands in her own, “we’d grow with them. There’s a reason they can’t walk when they start its so we can have the tactical advantage.”

 

Korra mulled over what she was being told at that moment. Asami watched as a look of resignation passing through her otherwise warm blue eyes in fleeting waves dropped to her stomach. Her voice low and quiet and cautious, her wife asked.

 

“What if its not enough?”

 

“There will always be bad days. We will just have to learn from them,” 

 

“Kids can be so crafty…so random how can I keep up with that?”

 

“Oh is the world class soccer player accepting defeat?” Asami teased leaning forward to catch her wife’s downward gaze, edging her hands closer in a subtly threatening gesture, “Or is it time she learns about de-fingers!” and with that she pounced, tickling with no mercy

 

“What? _No!_ ” Korra writhed, taken by surprise, unable to capture the vestiges that gripped her and made her wriggle.

 

“I will teach you to incapacitate with love and tickles and kisses-!” whatever she said next was drowned out by the athletes howls of laughter. She had her on her back and pinned her squirming hips to the bed with her own.

 

“You’re such an idiot I love you!” At that point the heiress had to sweep her hair over her shoulder to smirk at her. “What? Why are you biting your lip? What are you thinking?”

 

“I should have tickled you a long time ago to get you to tell me that.”

 

“I hate to tell you this Sato but tickles and love aren't mutually exclusive,” despite the line Korra’s lips thinned, and fingers splayed Asami’s weapons.

 

“I know.” 

 

“Then why the face?”

 

“I should have kissed you when we met.” 

 

“Mako would’ve been pleased.”

 

“He was a teenage boy he would have been over the moon.” 

 

“We weren't ready.” Asami waited for her to finish, listening intently to a thought Korra had never to shared with her before, which at this point was quite incredible to a person who knew her opinion on sock sizes, “Just because we weren't together doesn't mean it was a waste of time. I needed a best friend when I moved here, and it took a while but I could never of asked for one better.” 

 

“I seem to remember you hating me when we met.”

 

“I _said it took a while!”_

 

****

 

Asami stood, shamelessly mesmerised as her mind slowed the world before her. See Korra run, she thought, see her peel her jersey up over her tousled hair, see abs. Asami’s mind blipped as she just watched and thanked Adidas for their wise sponsorship of the US soccer team, and the beloved sports bras they provided. God Bless Adidas and all associated brands, she thought, she would have to send them a muffin basket in thanks.

 

“So the fire hasn't dwindled huh?” Asami was jolted out of her languor by a smug voice.

 

Kuvira pondered out loud, sporting the shit eating grin Asami now associated with her sick investment in her relationship. There had been bets, Kuvria had won a grand, she has been uncharacteristically grateful ever since.

 

“I hate how obvious we are.” Asami sighed.

 

“No you don’t,”

 

“No, not at all,” That earned a laugh as Kuvira stood, being one of the only humans on the planet that towered above the heiress her grin was that much more looming.

 

“You know there are rules about banging players _before_ the game right?”

 

“Unfortunately yes. I have an appointment today and cant be here so I wanted to wish the team luck.”

 

“I’m sure _the team_ appreciates it.” 

 

“I know but, since we got married I haven’t missed a single game, at least I can make sure we see each other on every game day.”

 

“You must know a lot of soccer by this point, tell me what is the offside rule?”

 

“A player is offside if he or she is nearest to his or her opponent’s goal line than both the ball and the second last opponent.”

 

“Wow.” Kuvira’s perfectly manicured eyebrows arched up in admiration. 

 

“Go big or go home.” The heiress shrugged waving politely and continuing on to the pitch side.

 

Korra noticed her the second her coat, red of course, gleamed from the top stand, and tried as she descended to only look from the edge of her vision. She was at work after all. When she reached the stands she bid her teammate a quick farewell, met with rolling of the eyes, as she jogged to meet her.

 

“Hey you.” Her smile gave away just how excited she was, puppy like and beaming. Asami marvelled at how every time she visited felt like the first.

 

“Howdy.” _Howdy?_ Asami thought. Grin freezing.

 

“It’s ok sweetie moments over.” Korra chuckled before pressing a kiss to her cheek and leading her into the bleachers.

 

“I wanted to wish you luck.” 

 

“Ooh yeah, how bout a quickie in the skybox?” The athlete teased waggling eyebrows.

 

“Ah no sleeping with the players before a big game!”

 

“Dammit who told you!”

 

“Blame Kuvira,” Korra shot her the stink eye with mock fury, before adding softly. “I’ll admit it will be kind of weird without you up there.”

 

“I can stay if you really want?”

 

“No, you’re liquidating your company today theres no going around it.”

 

“But I’m still the boss still, appointments can be changed around the thirty other senior members of staff-”

 

“It’s one game out of a million,” Korra urged. “This is something that you need to do, and if we lose its completely your fault.”

 

“Ok, fine I can live with that.” She hugged her, palming the word _SATO_ stitched onto her back for good luck, “Whatever happens I love you.”

 

Korra laughed and added.

 

“I love you too.” Several members of the US soccer team gave a mix of boos and cat calls and blushingly they parted. Korra pulled a face at her team mates, and turned her back to anyone but her wife. “Did Mako get back to you?”

 

“No but you don’t to think about that right before the big game.”

 

“Paparazzi with no camera? Asami other than you that’s all I’ve been thinking about.”

 

Asami rolled her eyes, and surmised.

 

“He might have concealed it.”

 

“Hmm maybe.” Korra turned her eyes out to the field, playing with the heiress’ fingers as she thought “I just can’t over it, how people watch us. All the time. Even when we’re home.”

 

“What happened to just trying to make a living?”

 

“This doesn't feel like that.”

 

“I know. Mako’s looking out for us, and for now, take comfort in the fact that binoculars can’t see through walls.”

 

Korra tried to smile but it never reached her eyes.

 

“Come on you need to get pumped, its almost game time. Do you want me to cheer lead?”

 

“You can give it a shot.” Korra shrugged.

 

“Ok gimme a _C_ gimme a _U gimme an N-“_

 

“Alright thats enough!” she poked her in the belly, ”This ones gonna inherit your potty mouth.”

 

“And that’ll be fucking cute.” Asami stood and kissed her forehead, “Everything is going to be fine, we have that weirdo on camera, and Mako will have an entire database of stalkers to cross reference.”

 

“ _Wait_.” 

 

“Do you want me to say good luck again because I will.”

 

“Come away with me.”

 

“What?”

 

“Seasons almost over, you’re going on sabbatical, lets go somewhere, soon, randomly so they can’t find us.”

 

Real worry, that was in her eyes at that moment, and she thought for a moment she should have felt it too. But no, this thing was always happening to her, her whole life, and when the going gets tough you dig in your heels. 

 

“Maybe,” she told her, “If you win the game I’ll think about it as your reward.”

 

“Done.” Korra snatched her hand and shook on it.

 

_“Hey Sato there’s a practice going on you know?”_

 

“There’s my cue,” Asami sighed, “I’ll see you tonight, and win or-”

 

_“I’m sleeping on the porch,_ I know.” and with that Korra took off running onto the pitch punting a ball over half it’s distance to Kuvira on the other side.

 

***

 

“Look I would love to argue and win whatever quarrel you suddenly have with me about IVF and how I’m stealing it but this is different, because its not about straight people making what you think they’re entitled to. I’m entitled to make my own family with the woman I love, so you and your ignorance can just cram it.” Asami didn't even look up from her phone as she shouldered past the protesters in the lot. Sometimes there were no other words for it.

 

“You’re creating an abomination!” red faced, sinewy turkey neck quivering with unbridled rage, this protestor reminded her of the old metal tea kettles, squeaking when hot.

 

Rolling her eyes, and finally looking up she added.

 

“The only abomination is that hair honey.”

 

The indignant squeals became supersonic and Asami thanked a god that somehow hated her for private security as a heavy from her staff finally took the time to intervene. 

 

“You’ll get what’s coming to you! In hell.”

 

“Fantastic have a nice day!” Her car pulled up, and she welcomed the warm dark of the back seat. These encounters only doubled since marrying Korra, but as she flipped open the photo gallery on her phone she was reminded how it was all worth it. 

 

“You shouldn't bait them you know.”

 

She blanched, looking up. 

 

“Wu!” He smirked at her from the mirror. “Back from the beach house already?”

 

“Damn you mean we could have spent another week in jacuzzi mahogany bliss?”

 

“I’m coming up front.”

 

“What no, in your condition?”

 

“I’m pregnant not enfeebled.” she clambered over his arm rest and settled in the passenger seat, hugging him as he steered a little fast and loose round the corner.

 

“I meant _crazy.”_

 

“But isn't it just so fun.” she hummed, “I’ve been getting them every day now.” 

 

“Car accidents?”

 

The heiress shot him a beleaguered look.

 

“Protesters? _Every day?”_

 

“At least one, but never the same.”

 

“Does Korra know?”

 

“God no. And you’re sworn to secrecy.”

 

“Jesus. Wait isn't she playing today? Mako’s picking her up.”

 

“Turn on the radio.” but Asami was already fiddling with the dials, “Damn why don't they say the score every five seconds for when people are just tuning in?”

 

“Wouldn’t that make it a tad boring for the rest of the time?”

 

“Sh!” They listened for a time about kicks and goals, its didn't sound like it was going well. Kuvira had a red card.

 

“Do you feel safe?”

 

“What?”

 

“With all these protestors, and Korra not knowing.”

 

“I can defend myself.”

 

“I know just…be careful hun.” 

 

“Thanks.” 

 

They were pulling into the mansion drive now, the game had ended, the US had lost. Asami smirked and imagined Korra’s derisive smirk if she saw a pillow and sheet set up on the porch couch. Cocoa and candles on the table beside it.

 

“I’ll see you soon okay?” She told Wu opening the door.

 

“I’m off to pick up your temporary replacement.”

 

“Suck an egg Wu.” she waved and slammed it on his laughter.

 

It all happened so fast after that. She walked in, closed the door, began undressing in her bedroom when she noticed the closet door wide open. On any other day this would have seemed commonplace, except today she’d made a point of slamming it to wake her wife for the third time in fits of laughter. Her heart plunged into over drive in that moment. She placed her earrings on the dresser and took the bone comb, handle carved into a point and began to brush.

 

She could feel them in the house, their tip toes vibrating through the floor. In her mind she started to beg. Her eyes met blue, unforgiving icy blue. She elbowed him in the nose, only two others were either side.

 

“Get off me!”

 

“Fuck you!”

 

She struggled but one was no match for three, twisting and kicking desperate to get free and protect her stomach. She just needed to knock out one, just one and then the other two would be easy. If she hit them hard enough it could be a coma. With a hard yank and twist her arm came free and she jammed it into a temple. She heard him go down but there were the others to think about. She kneed a crotch, and scored her nails against a cheek. She was free for a moment, and she lurched for the door only to catch a glimpse of two more on the stair case. Kicking down paintings and spraying ‘FAGGOT’s on the wall in spray paint calligraphy. The door was open, the vermin had already raced in. 

 

She doubled back over moaning men, into her closet, and dialled 911.

“This is Asami Sato, people are breaking and entering in my house on Sato Hill, three tried to assault me I’m barricaded in my closet.”

 

There was too much blood in her ears to hear anything about a dispatch. She barred the door with an over turned shoe shelf. With trembling fingers she dialled again.

 

Korra rang out. She called Mako.

 

_“Hey ‘Sami bad news.”_

 

“There are people in my house! Get Korra take her away from here.”

 

_“Did you call the police?”_

 

“Yes they’re on their way.”

 

_“So are we.”_

 

“No Mako don’t!” He’d hung up before she could argue. No-one downstairs had fund her door yet. She sat on the over turned shoe rack, not able to breathe. She listened to footsteps, to crashes, profanities and hatred. She clutched her stomach, and dialled Korra again.

 

She told her she loved her. That every second was worth it. She didn't mention how she thought she was going to die. She told her that she wanted more than anything to be a parent with her. Without hearing this back she couldn't recall exactly what she said, she just said it, words tumbling from her lips like water. Unable to bear the thought of never saying goodbye, and unwilling to let Korra hear the moment it all ended.

 

When she hung up she wasn't trembling, she wouldn't call it that, no every heat beat thrummed through her body like electricity, surging as she waited in agony for anything to happen. What felt like hours could only have been minutes. The clashes and screaming and laughter of it drowned out any sense of help. 

 

She couldn't decipher the scramble of voices and crunch of flesh against wood outside. Wedging her legs and body against the wall, her feel against the rack, the rack against the door she braced herself for impact. 

 

None came. One by one voices drained. A trick maybe, trying to weed her out from her hiding place. Phone to chest she stayed put listening intently.

 

“ _Asami_?” There was no other voice like it, panic and relief swirled inside her chest constricting and filling it at the same time. The door wiggled, “Asami it’s okay they’re down.” 

 

For a moment the heiress couldn't move at all, her body had been so bent on keeping the door closed it took some time to even wiggle her big toe out of pure shock.

 

Korra helped as she pushed and reached for her at the same time. Her jersey still streaked in mud. She was wearing her cleats inside the house. Asami had never been so grateful to see her. Well, perhaps once before. She took her hand and fell into her without hesitation, which led to her landing hip first on the carpet as Korra assessed her injuries.

 

“You’re bleeding.” she choked having nothing but her hands to swipe the blood out of her wife’s eye. Asami couldn't speak just yet she tugged her down, burying her face in the shoulder of Korra’s jersey. 

 

“Despatch are chasing four of them on foot, they wont get far.”

The heiress wasn't listening really, she was memorising the warmth of Korra’s body shielding her. This sense of security she was clinging to in that moment was immediately ripped away, Korra fell back for one of the men who had first attacked Asami came to and wasn't going down with out a fight. Korra shoved him back cleat’s first jumping to her feet and landing on Mako.

 

Korra acted without thinking. She always did either spectacular or stupid things during these blips of behaviour, this was neither.

 

Asami had to take a moment to absorb what she was seeing, that if she could, or had ever, imagined a day in her lifetime would end like this. For yes, now the sun was setting, and its last light shone on the impossible through parted curtains. The love of her life holding a gun against the forehead of a man she had never seen before today.


	3. Chapter 3

 

Guns are heavier than they look. Korra thought it as her fingers flexed over matt black and fixed the point so tightly to the stranger’s head she was sure it would leave a square print around that red hole. 

 

Adrenaline was no stranger to her, in fact all her life she had clung to its fiery embrace, and together they had done brilliant things. What was strange however was the sense of power she now held. It was as if all her life she had been truly helpless, and the certainty of it had crystallised with the picking up of this pistol. The room had frozen, Mako, the man of the law, was stunned standing hands splayed and eyes wide in disbelief. The lines between law and friendship so intrinsically blurred.

 

She looked down on the man who’s life she now carried, sweating, trembling, blue eyes searching hers. 

 

“What are you going to do - _dyke_?”

 

“ _Korra_ -,” Mako began,

 

“ _Shut up!”_ she snapped, voice broken, “Do you have a wife?” she asked the man, “Would you die for her?”

 

He did nothing but stare back. She couldn't help the fury that boiled up inside her and pressed the gun into him a little more. He whimpered.

 

“I would for mine.” she explained, “and she would for me because we love each other. Do you love your wife like that?”

 

“ _Don’t you fucking talk about mine you faggot bitch-!”_

 

_“And this_ what you’re doing would you die for this _hate_?” Still he stared, teeth grit, fuming, eyes burning, daring her, revelling in the tears falling down her cheeks. Make her move. 

 

Despite the tears Korra’s brow blocked light from falling into her eyes. The shadow across her face hid the miles being counted her mind was going before her journey had even started.

 

A hand on her arm stilled her, cold in comparison and soothing. Asami cupped her bicep and brushed the hair that escaped Korra’s ponytail from her face. Her wife closed her eyes as the press of warm silky lips touched her cheek. 

 

“He hasn't taken anything from us.” she whispered her voice gentle and private. She felt the muscles on her gun toting arm loosen that little bit beneath her fingers. “Nothing that matters.”

 

“You didn't do anything to him. Anything at all and he…” 

 

The heiress didn't answer, only letting the weight of all the protestors, the strangers who screamed their opinion on her life pull her down, cheek landing over Korra’s shoulder as she struggled for breath. She wouldn't blame Korra if she pulled that trigger, if it meant they could be left in peace she would consider taking this man down herself. But why should they have to make such a sacrifice? Why does being together mean they have to be abnormal? 

 

Finally Korra spoke again.

 

“Mako take him.”

 

By this point more officers had approached the room, and were there to aid yanking the stranger to his feet. 

 

“There will never be an end for you.” He drawled, tone gleeful like he’d emerged triumphant in some way, “When your mutant bastard is born do you think we’re gonna let it live?” he cackled. 

 

The pistol went off, the bang almost deafening to everyone in the room as Korra had clenched her fists and pulled the trigger, shooting the ground before sprinting towards him. If he wasn't terrified before he was now. Before who knew what Korra had punched him in the jaw. 

 

Officers yanked her back, but she had made her point and didn't struggle. With respect for what she had just heard.

 

“If anyone comes _near_ my baby I promise _-_ _I wont hold back._ ” She let him be dragged out of her home, piss trailing from the sleeve of his pant leg as he went, before dropping the gun and feeling her whole body weight drop to her feet.

 

The officers caught her and let her down to her knees easy, “Sorry.” she said, and it was because of more than just having to catch her. 

 

She looked around the ruins of her home, hate carved into the walls and all it made her want to do was take a lighter to it herself. Asami was doing the same, stepping slowly as if the floor that she had walked on all her life might suddenly give way.

 

“Can I go to her?” Korra asked, knowing the gravity of what she had just done. “ _Please_?” 

 

The officers seemed to wait for a cue, Mako being of higher rank granted it with a nod when he reentered the house. 

 

She ran the collision of there hug knocked the wind out of her. Tears stinging her eyes, as she slammed them shut and pressed them against the her neck.

 

“ _I’m sorry._ ” 

 

“You did everything so good.” Asami told her, “Everything was perfect.” 

 

Korra let out a broken laugh and Asami did too, clinging to that sense of relief instead of sorrow, taking deep breaths. Her happy place was right there, holding her, and she was doing everything to tap into it. Until reality pushed her out of it, in the shape of an ex boyfriend.

 

“Come, EMT needs to look at those cuts.” Mako said.

 

 

“No we’re fine we can stay and fix this.” She looked around the room trying not to wince as Korra parted from her.

 

“Where was your security tonight Asami?”

 

“I-”

 

“We can’t stay baby.” Korra told her, palm warm against her cheek. “Go get looked at. _Please.”_

 

As they parted she turned, throwing her gaze about the destruction and feeling panic cold in her heart.

 

“What’s wrong?” Asami asked.

 

_“Naga.”_ Korra darted to the kitchen, Asami following, hearts in their throats part of them feared what would come of their calling out, or rather, what wouldn’t.

 

Korra whistled out of the back door, staring into the dark, listening, straining her eyes for that glimpse of white fluff. 

 

Suddenly she heard a yelp, and then another, one human; one dog. 

 

Korra sprinted, but police were there first, grappling with Naga who had ensnared an intruder in her maw, at least his ankle was. 

 

“Naga! Release!” she let go immediately and ran headlong into her owner, hopping happily between person to person.

 

“ _Fucking gay dog!”_ the intruding homophobe whined.

 

“Okay - You need to know when to shut up!” an officer grumbled hauling him to his feet. Looking down on Korra curled around her now docile pet. 

 

As Korra hugged her companion she asked,

 

“Please tell me she can’t get put down for this?”

 

“She was defending the house. It’s what dogs do.” 

 

Korra heaved a sigh of relief as she buried her face in fur. Naga gratefully nuzzled back knocking her off her feet. Asami’s arms caught her shoulders and she found herself pressed against her chest, and her pet across her lap. Forgetting the circumstance this almost felt normal for a Tuesday evening.

 

“Asami, the paramedics.” Mako interrupted again. 

 

Sat there cradling her family, Asami felt the cool sting of antiseptic graze her temple, her knuckles, the nail marks on her wrist. She could feel Korra watching them, even after the medic had wrapped them.

 

“Ma’am we’d like to check if the baby’s okay.” she’d been expecting it but still the thought of it made her wince.

 

A sonogram and an iPad, that’s all it would take. Before she could think of how lonely this felt, Korra had reversed positions allowing her to lean back as she lifted her shirt. She felt infinitesimal in that moment, scanning her memories and body to the best of her own ability, hoping she had done enough, that she had fought enough. Despite this she tried her best to keep the worry out of her voice.

 

“Whatever happens-”

 

“I know I’m sleeping on the porch,” Korra cut in, fingers closed tight around hers, “Rules are rules.” 

 

Icy gel was smeared over her stomach then, the heiress let her head fall back onto her wife’s shoulder, absorbing the kisses and I love you’s brushing over her temple, and suddenly aware of the chilling helplessness of not knowing what was about to happen. 

 

_“I need you to be honest with me.”_ Mako crouched beside them, thumbing Asami’s nails on her free hand, and the blood caked beneath them, “Did these men, did any of them-”

 

She knew what he was asking, a stab of gratitude flaring through her chest that even thought they may have come close, they did not succeed. 

 

“I wasn’t raped Mako. They just wanted to hurt me… I don't know maybe they would've but I knocked them out and hid where you found me.”

 

“Good. I mean not good but you know.” 

 

_“You’re a cop you say?”_ Korra teased after sniffing back tears. 

 

Asami was too numb to laugh.

 

“And there’s the heart beat.” The EMT turned to show them. “It’s small right now but that’s all there is to it, see?” she gestured around the blur of white and black and gray, and pulsing together around that tiny beat.

 

“May I?” The heiress took the thin screen in her hands and almost expected it to be vibrating. 

 

“Look at that.” Korra breathed, reaching around her to touch the screen, “We’re okay.”

 

Naga nosed the fuzzy creature that monopolised her owners attention.

 

_“Naga.”_ Asami whined.

 

“That’s your baby brother slash sister.” Korra explained, before she sneezed against the glass. ” _Rude_.”

 

“Maybe Naga doesn't approve of the myth of gender for them just yet.” Asami wasn't quite aware she had made a joke until Korra’s weak laughter flowed through her, warming cockles and soothingbones. Her lips found a smile even if her brain could scarcely believe it. 

 

Looking down on the tablet, the glass screen that reflected the baby in her belly, a cathartic gratifying absolution was awash on her memories. She had fought and won and this was the result, for now, they were safe. 

 

“Mrs Sato?”

 

“Yes?” Both Sato’s answered, looking up at a man with a clip board and a camera. Korra hid her smirk behind the heiress’ neck.

 

“Whomever the security system is fingerprinted to…we believe there’s a man in your vent, and it needs you to let him out.”

 

“This again.” Asami rolled her eyes, as she wiped ultrasound gel from her skin and balled the cloth up in her fist as Mako hauled and Korra lifted her to her feet. “And, who are you?”

 

“Taylor Green, I’m with the insurance company.”

 

“Wow you guys are quick.” 

 

The man gave an awkward smile, and swiftly added, “I’ll also need some help with some of the works of art - are they broken or were they made that way?”

 

Korra chuckled in an _I told you so_ tone. 

 

“Made that way.” Asami’s tongue poked out of her lips in a weak grimace aimed at her wife.

 

“They’re just ugly.” Korra corrected.

 

“How long will this take?” Mako asked.

 

“No more than a half hour.”

 

“Good. You.” he pointed at a nearby officer, “escort Mrs Sato around the property with this man - You, help this one pack.”

 

“Wow she gets ‘Mrs Sato' I get _this one_?” 

 

Asami walked away as Mako began spouting off list items. 

 

“Essentials only, ID’s, any money, small valuables. keys, clothes got it?”

 

“Where are we going?”

 

“Witness protection.”

 

“No there’s no point we’ll be blown in a second, we have to get out of here, we have to leave. Just pack a bag and go on a road trip.”

 

“This is crazy! How can you know you’ll be safe?”

 

“We won’t but you can’t guarantee that either, and we can’t even trust private security, who can we trust? I’m sorry Mako this is the way. It’s the only way.”

 

He stared at her, incredulous, thick brows drawn together in worry. 

 

“You’re not listening to-” he began.

 

“Mako.”

 

“No! You need to listen, I get what you’re saying - and I wont let you do this without support.” From his jacket he pulled an envelope, and from this keys, and two phones. “I had a feeling this is the way you would go, so I had someone pick up some things.”

 

“ _Christ that thing has buttons_.”

 

“These are burner phones, I suggest you give me yours. They have gps, with safe houses and motels database logged in.” he slapped them in her hand, “And this is the key to my car.”

 

“The Lexus?”

 

“The Camero.”

 

“ _You still have that dinosaur_?”

 

“I’m giving you this chance to do this your way. You are Mrs Cold, Asami - Mrs Ice. You will check in as twice every day, give a report hang up move on. One sign of danger and you call the number on the cells. This is important they must tell you whether or not the line is secure and put you through to me, sit tight, and I’ll come get you.”

 

“Mako this-”

 

“I’m not done, I’ve assigned you to this hotel for tonight, you’ll need to drive aways but when you get there, you’re there for two nights. Officers are standing by until we can make you new ID’s.”

 

“It’s that simple?”

 

“That simple. Understand that this is a little slap dash but given your status I call it appropriate. You’ll have to keep moving.”

 

“For how long?”

 

“Until it’s safe. We see how far this goes. Unfortunately this looks organised.” Korra nodded, staring at the key in her hand, “Officers waiting.” he gestured.

 

“Thank you.” she blurted, “for this.”

 

“Literally my job. On my day off. Thank you for that.”

 

“Permission to hug?” 

 

He sighed, smirking. 

 

“Look away,” he grumbled to his inferior before opening his arms. Korra lunged. After a moment being gratefully enveloped she reached blindly of the officer standing by.

 

“You too!”

 

“Korra!”

 

“Thank you for making me a part of this.” the officer squeaked awkwardly reaching around and patting Mako on his back, “and this is incredibly inappropriate for a crime scene,” she added. 

 

“Go pack before we all get fired.” Mako grumbled.

 

***

 

There was a moment, so ordinary, so quaint, that as she woke Asami took another to realise she’d never experienced this - sunlight seeping through the canopy of trees. Barely conscious she listened to the wind whistling through nooks and crannies of a car she hadn't seen since high school. In fact she was sure the only time she’d spent time in a speed-wagon as old as this was to fool around with Mako in the back seat way back when. 

 

She’d never actually been driven in it, she would have noticed right away the flaws in the design that irked her perfect engineering mind, the weaknesses in the engine propelling them forward at an erratic and alarming pace, or the painful way the car lurched when changing gears. 

 

He’d kept it after his parents passed, after high school, college, even after work his job provided him with a company car, this sea foam green Camaro, with leather couch seats, chain steering wheel and Bolin’s eight year old footprints staining the felt ceiling had always been parked outside his home. Nothing in the world would make that man give this up. Which made it all the more confusing when she turned her head, and Korra was driving it, lost in her own fractured thoughts.

 

Too emotionally weak and exhausted to question anything, the heiress turned, readjusting her legs beneath her to watch her drive, to watch the sunlight halo her tousled hair. Baggy eyed and the remnants of worry still arching in her brow, she drove without noticing her wife had moved beside her. 

 

“ _Hey_.” Asami called out to her gently. Korra blinked hard and refocused on the road. As more of the last night returned to the heiress, she realised that Korra probably hadn't stopped driving since they left the mansion. She was still in her match clothes, grass stains and mud streaked across her bare legs and soccer shorts. The only clean part of her was the gleaming bandage over her knuckles.

 

In flashes it all returned to her, the yelling, the twisted faces, her wife taking Mako’s gun and sending echoes of that single shot screaming into the night. Being told she was ok, knowing that at that moment it was a lie. Stalking through the hollowed out corpse of her house. Pointing out each and every defiled possession and shattered memory for Mr Green to jot down. 

 

“Hey.” Korra answered, voice husky, soar even. She stole a look, and from that she knew where to reach out, to stroke her cheek, “How are you feeling?”

 

Asami took her hand and told her in a just as weak voice.

 

“Incredible.” 

 

Korra huffed a surprised laugh, although it wasn't enough to break the tension twisting in her chest.

 

“C’mere.” Korra tucked her hand behind her back, and Asami took her queue, shuffling into her side feeling her lips press over her temple. “I’m sorry…”

 

“Kay.”

 

“I never thought… I never wanted to put a target on your back…”

 

“ _Hey_ ,” Asami squeezed her tighter, turning her face into her shoulder, blocking out the light in the musk of Korra’s soccer shirt. “Not here.” She mumbled against it, feeling Korra’s cheek press over the top of her head as she watched the road with tear blurred eyes.

 

“Who are we following.”

 

“I don’t know any more, it’s been so long,” 

 

“The sun has risen.” Asami noted. “Do you want to switch?”

 

“My hand is stuck like this.”

 

“The _claw,”_ she observed, reaching out and tracing her thumb over Korra’s driving hand. 

 

“This is very unsafe while i’m driving.” she warned, “I didn't say stop.”

 

***

 

Asami looked down on the clothes Korra had snatched for her, laid out on the bed. Nothing matched. There was an alarming amount of faux fur items, and almost all of them had had a photo frame nestled in it. Korra had showered, hair wet, towel wrapped around her shoulders she sat cross legged staring at her burner phone on the table. Gnawing her thumb nail absentmindedly. 

 

“Stop it.” Asami sat down next to her, snatching her fingers away. Still she stared. “Hey.”

 

“I need to think.”

 

“No you don’t you need sleep.”

 

“Seriously?” 

 

“Look its a good joke but you don’t have to sleep on the porch. We don’t have a porch here. Just a parking lot.” 

 

“I can’t stop thinking about what Mako said. This was planned…What if the baby makes you a target but it’s not like we’ve been yelling about it…I wanted this so much…I pushed and it’s made you a target. Maybe the world isn't ready for this.”

 

“What are you saying?”

 

“Nothing I don’t know I’m just processing…Why would someone plan something like this… I mean not well and with no real motive other than homophobia, but-”

 

“I wouldn't say there was no real motive.” Asami mumbled quietly.

 

“What? Did you know those people?”

 

“No of course not but, I’m, well I’m not saying I knew it was coming but…in a way I’m not surprised.”

 

“Not _surprised?”_ Korra stood as suddenly as she shouted, “What does that mean?”

 

“Korra-”

 

“No not that tone - what aren't you telling me? _Where was I_?”

 

“They come to my work. Future Industries have been getting protesters since we got married. It’s not like I’ve been…”

 

“Keeping it from me? Is that what you were going to say? _We’ll eat lunch at the Palm K - Don’t swing by I’ll come to you!”_

 

“Please be an ass about it. My not telling you about the horror show that is out side my work that’ll make you needlessly worry!”

 

“Yes wife, marriage quarrel lets do this. Cursing.” Korra seethed clapping “Excellent start” she cracked her neck and knuckles and inhaled before adding, “Why the _fuck_ didn’t you tell me how bad this was?”

 

“Obviously I didn't want you to worry!” 

 

“I should have been! We could have worked against this - we’re adults Asami we should plan and work our way through a problem - hell that _marriage_ they’ve been protesting includes telling each other everything - when did we stop doing that? Is your favourite colour still red? Are you still allergic to penicillin?”

 

“This is completely different, it seemed petty, these people think we cause floods - they didn't deserve to be taken seriously because _we can’t always fight this_.” if she’d ever had a resolve for arguing with her wife, she’d forgotten it instantly in those last five words. Suddenly it was hard to breathe, and the reality of what she’d done welled up in her throat.

 

“This isn't about fighting its about me being unprepared - I could have killed someone I could have been warned Asami why didn't you warn me!”

 

“Because…” she tried to muster a sound but her lips just trembled. 

 

“Because what? huh? I can’t protect you with _because_?”

 

“I can’t _be_ protected,”

 

“No you can’t? Do you have any idea how ridiculous that sounds? Like we haven’t been a team all this time? Fighting off a hundred of these idiots together?”

 

“ _Because it chips away at me!”_ Asami shrieked. “ _Every_ time. Being told I’m wrong and dirty and going to hell. _Getting letters that I’m going to be murdered in my sleep._ Not because they’re right but because theres so many, _so many out there_.” she took several shattered breaths pressing on her heaving chest as tears streamed down her cheeks and heart ricochet from rib to rib.

 

“What are you saying? That you don’t want to… _be gay?”_ Korra’s voice was soft now. 

 

“No I’m not saying that I don't want to love you - I mean I _really_ love you but…”

 

“Theres a but?”

 

“I couldn't bare the thought of them hating you too. That maybe you would think…I.”

 

“You what? You’re not worth it? … _How dare you_?”

 

“Korra.”

 

“After all this time, after everything _everything don’t believe I would what?_ Leave when things got difficult? As I recall thats your bag so don’t put that on me!”

 

“I can’t - I know. I know what I did was wrong. I hate myself for it but I couldn't face it. I couldn’t handle the possibility so I just put everything off. I couldn't expose you to it.”

 

Korra’s hands were at her sides now. For the first time ever, blue eyes had gone cold.

 

“You couldn't trust me with it.”

 

Asami couldn't speak. All she could do was move, she snatched her purse and keys.

 

“What are you doing?”

 

Asami was at the door before she finally snapped.

 

“What I do best!”

 

“ _Are you coming back_?”

 

But she was already gone.

 

 

****

Asami fumbled with the burner phone that she had been given. It was small and clunky and it had buttons. _Buttons._ She prodded the handset gingerly, for the first time in her life wondering if she, a Sato, would be unable to text and drive. Instead she hit dial to one of three numbers programmed in. 

 

Rain was falling thick and fast outside, she led the cruiser listlessly through the fog, aware in the far corner of her mind the groceries were melting, but finding it outside of her capacity to care.

 

Two rings, and a crackle of being picked up, except the receiver said nothing.

 

“This is Mrs. Ice,” Asami told them, listening intently to the silence on the other end, “checking in,”

 

A flat uninterested voice answered.

 

“One moment please.”

 

“Thank you.” The voice gave way to hold music.

 

“The line is secure.” The voice returned.

 

“ _Asami_?” Mako’s voice replaced it. “Are you safe?”

 

“Yes.” Asami told her, voice already threatened to give. “I’m in the cruiser.”

 

“What about Korra?”

 

“She’s sleeping… in the house.”

 

“ _You’re not together_?”

 

“I needed some air and _food_ and-we had a fight.”

 

“Asami!”

 

“I know it’s stupid given everything and I’m going back and it’s pissing it down so no one can see in to recognise me, I just, I had to call.” her resolve faltered with every word, and as desperate as she was to keep the tears from flowing again, “I had to thank you.”

 

“It’s nothing _really,_ just my job. Korra did all the work.”

 

“She was _scary_.”

 

“She was terrified Asami. We’d do anything to keep you safe.”

 

“I _know_.” Asami sniffled, “I can’t believe you gave us your car.”

 

“My mom’s car.” Mako corrected, “Take care of her will you.”

 

“I will.” Asami thumbed the chain steering wheel.

 

“What were you fighting about?” 

 

“Like I said, _we’re_ scared.”

 

“You people do stupid things when you’re scared.”

 

“I know, she felt so bad, that she made me a target God it was such a mess!”

 

“You guys’ll figure it out,” Mako’s stellar advice solved nothing, as always. “You always do.”

 

“This is so different to all we’ve done. To everything anyone’s done. I mean we’re literally like the third successful trail Mako, and the other two couples _don’t even speak english.”_

 

“What you’re doing is amazing. Pregnancy is amazing.”

 

“It’s a farty bloating disgusting mess and you know it.” Asami snapped, swiping her palms across her eyes. “ _And people hate us for it._ ” she sucked in a broken sopping breath and bit down hard on her lip.

 

“Asami don’t… do that - listen, you’re both strong amazing women. You survived a sex tape going viral, and might I remind you the audience was fifty-fifty on love or hate. You guys survived the bridge and years of physical therapy. You’ve suffered, and you will again, but you do it because you got Korra out of it. This time you’ll get a little bit more,”

 

“I don't think I can keep running.”

 

“It’ll blow over I swear, a month, maybe two it’ll die down. Or you know you’ll think of something completely crazy to make it happen.”

 

Asami flinched, a flash had passed, and a deep rumble followed.

 

“ _I have to go_. I’m safe. We’re safe _. I really have to go_.”

 

“What?”

 

“ _Lighting_.” Was her only explanation before she hung up. Aimless driving become focused speeding. Every flash a reminder of where she should be. Every deep roar making her stomach twist in anticipation. The cruiser skidded outside the safe house. Abandoning groceries, braving the down pour without a second thought she sprinted to the door.

 

At first she panicked, her heart plummeted into her stomach at an empty room. She heard a gasp and a slight shuffle. Korra was behind the couch arm, book shelf and wall, shaking like a leaf and gripping a radiator pipe with such force her arm muscles were taut and palms white. Asami kneeled and leant over the arm of the couch.

 

“Korra look at me.”

 

“Hey Asam-“ Thunder and lightening pulsed through the apartment and ratted her, her eyes shut as her entire body shook mercilessly. 

 

“It’s okay it’s _okay,_ you’re _safe_.” Korra tried to give her any indication that she felt as such, only managing to open her eyes and take her in.

 

“Have you been crying?” she asked.

 

“So have you!” Asami exclaimed, to which Korra let out a weak laugh. 

 

“This is so stupid,” she murmured to herself. Knowing full well that she’d lived with this involuntary phobia wasn't something she could control, the storm, like the bridge, was just something she had to ride out. Every crack reminded her of breaking concrete, of crushed metal, of the lights burning bright before there was nothing but hours of painful darkness. The flash and bang enveloped the whole house and Korra yelped “ _God_!”

 

“Hey hey _I’m right here.”_ the heiress pried a hand away from the pipe and wrapped her fingers clumsily around Korra’s thumb and forefinger, “I need you to keep your eyes open for me baby okay? The sound is the worst part so I want to to listen only to me. _Now find for me five things you can see_.”

 

“Five things?”

 

“Just five.”

 

“Do your eyes count as two?”

 

“Not for this.” 

 

The yelling, the anger hours before had been replaced by this wounded girl, shivering, sweating and holding on to what she loved most with clammy shaking hands.

 

“Okay one - _your green eyes._ ”

 

“Good. Okay two.”

 

“Two-” Korra bit back a squeal that Asami kissed her palm to calm as another explosion rattled through her. “ _The fireplace!_ Behind you, there’s a fire place. _”_

 

“Good, when you feel ready I want you to let go of the pole okay? Now three.”

 

Korra nodded breathing deep flexing her fingers in the hand that her wife held. _The Brave and The Trusted,_ floated through her screaming mind like a sigh on a breeze, and she was thrown back to her wedding night.

 

“Three - Our wedding photo, the one where I’m kissing your neck and you’re smiling.”

 

Asami couldn't help the flush of heat that warmed her face then as she too remembered how intoxicating that felt. She could have told her that the wedding photo was still hung in their mansion, the one they couldn't return to, but she didn't instead she urged.

 

“Four.”

 

“You, leaping on the deck after Ice dodging, the complete look of bewilderment on your face.” She inhaled deeply when the heiress’ cool hand touched her cheek, she had been caught in the rain but it was gentle to touch.

 

“It was a close call,” the heiress admitted, “Five.” 

 

“The ultra sound, the avocado baby. _Ours_.” Asami keened this time as she leant forward and pressed her lips on the corner of Korra’s.

 

“Four things that you’re touching.”

 

“Carpet; wall; you,” Korra’s other hand wrapped around both of theirs, “You.”

 

Another flash, only the resounding boom came a while after, a sure sign the thunder was ebbing farther away from where they hid.

 

“Your hands.” she corrected closing her eyes to feel the catharsis the heiress cold hands soothing, combing through her hair.

 

“Three things you can hear.” Asami asked, tone gentle, voice like a wave ebbing into being.

 

“Rain, lots of rain,”

 

“What else?”

 

“Your hand, your palm, on my ear.”

 

“And three.” Korra sucked in a breath as another flash braced her.

 

“My heart, _it’s beating out of my chest.”_

 

A stronger bout of shivering seemed to take over the Water Tribe girl as wind soared and thunder rumbled.

 

“Two you can smell.”

 

“Rain.” Korra managed through her teeth, “and you. Jasmine. You.”

 

“Okay last one. One thing you can taste.”

 

“Nothing…toothpaste I think,” Korra opened her eyes maybe take comfort in something else. The bloodshot eyes of her wife, brimming with tears. Her wife who stopped whatever she was doing to find her in the storm, despite the fact they had been screaming at each other hours before. 

 

“Feeling better?” she asked another bolt lighting the room, but Korra was down to a semi-controlled shiver. When Korra nodded she added, “C’m here.”

 

Pulling back Asami urged her from her crouched position, guiding her beside her on the couch. Hooking her hands beneath her ribs, holding her against her chest before buffering her ears between her heart and her palm. Instinctively Korra shut her eyes and fed her hands beneath her back, loving the comfort that came with being smushed against her.

 

“I forgot what it was like,” Korra admitted, “without the fall out windows you made me. I’m too dependent.”

 

“Are you saying I did too good a job?”

 

“They’re perfect, the whole house is…perfect.” another bolt, another flinch. 

 

“ _Easy_ ,” Asami crooned.

 

“I can’t believe I still freak out over this.”

 

“You can’t help it…Your nightmares, they lasted three years, paranoia six months. Recovery takes time. I’m amazed at how well you’ve done.” 

 

“Actually… I’ve been stupid with lightning since I was a kid.” Korra admitted,

 

“Really?” The heiress blanched, sieving through memories to try to recall any sign, “How did your Parents handle it?”

 

“Pillow forts,” Korra surmised, remembering being toddler sized, enveloped by cushions and blankets her parents had ‘borrowed’ from the Palace Hotel. “One night I couldn't stop crying and shaking my dad wrapped me up and then blocked the windows until my whole bedroom was just fort.”

 

“Did it block it out?”

 

“I don't know it was something to do, something else to think about other than the sky opening up and break _ing.”_ she shuddered on the last word as a crack filtered through the room.

 

Asami hummed in response, eyeing the throw over the back of the couch and chewing over her next move before she made it. She yanked at it with her free arm, only succeeding in laying it over their heads.

 

“ _Wow_ my own FI fort. Does it come with bluetooth?” Korra mumbled, muffled against the crushed velvet.

 

“Shut up - _wait,”_ she reached for a dining chair that was literally at the tip of her fingers, lunging and to Korra’s disgruntlement jostling her prime position of her face against her chest. Flicking the blanket back over the top of the chair, she knotted it in the wicker backrest, before re-tucking the other side beside the couch.

 

“How did you do that in under thirty seconds?”

 

“I went to MIT.” Asami shrugged before feeding her fingers back into Korra’s hair.

 

Only Korra pushed herself up, hands and knees either side, looking down over her wife in the now dark creche. Words could not convey the powerful, possessive, adoring love she had for her, and all she could do in the moment that followed, was seek her lips out of the shadow. Hand subconsciously feeding between them and finding the bump of Asami’s stomach.

 

These were long and indulgent kisses, their grip on each a little tighter that they were used to, but every bit as passionate as the first time. 

 

“Can’t we just stay here?” Asami offered, teasing Korra’s lower lip with her teeth before tugging her down and kissing her throat. “Go where they can never find us, or hate us for what we did and be _safe,_ ” 

 

She didn't know what she expected Korra to say, or even if she would say anything, but didn't think it would come out so calm, 

 

“In six months we’ll be up to our neck in the biggest adventure of our lives, and yes we can stay, or we can run.” she explained cupping her cheeks and pressing her soft kiss against clumsily against her temple. “ _Whatever you want,_ wherever you go I will follow. But whatever you choose, either way it has to come from you. If it’s for them, or what _they think,_ we’re weak,” the athlete pulled back, blue eyes certain and gleaming impossibly in the dark, “But we’re Sato’s,” Korra told her, “And we have the strength to do this our way.”

 


	4. Chapter 4

After the rain had stopped, Korra carried Asami to the bed. This was an open plan hotel room, so she could lay her down sleeping, kiss her forehead goodnight, and still have her in sight when she checked the lock on the door, and then again when she checked the window beside it. She took the ironing board from the wardrobe, and wedged it between the front door and a partition that separated the ‘parlour’ from the ‘lounge room’.

She listened to Asami, every third breath or so would hitch, harder as through struggling. She had been told once that everyone did this subconsciously, but knowing it would be the same as knowing you’re blinking. She’d never paid attention to it until living with Asami. The hitch worried her, something she knew now more than her own.

There were two windows with handles in the bathroom, she noticed, taking a wire hanger from the cluster hanging in the cupboard she hooked the two handles together and twisted the hanger down. Lastly she took the glasses from under the hotel TV cabinet, the kettle, the ramekin full of sugars, and lined them up along the front window sill. Lastly she closed all the curtains, sealing the room in a cocoon of darkness, lit only by the lamps of the parking lot that never seemed to shut off.

It doesn't feel like enough. She thought, pondering over her Home Alone-style improvements and listening to her wife’s breathing. She sat on the edge of the bed, legs crossed, oddly matching scars on her bare ankles aligning. Korra took her fiddled with her wife’s boots, she was in the same clothes she had said good luck to her in, less than six hours ago. It was funny Korra expected to be doing this at the end of the night, but under entirely different circumstances.

Korra pulled her heels from her ankles, dropped them by the side of the bed with a thud.

“Jeans too.” The heiress mumbled.

“You pretending?” Korra braved a smirk, tugging down her socks.

“In and out.” Asami told her, but now her eyes were open and wet. Korra did as she asked, tugging gently at the fabric until it piled up on the shoes on the ground. Running her fingertips gently against fresh bruises over her thigh. When she was done she lay down on the bed beside her, tucking her arm under her head. Laying there then, side by side, felt like being miles away. Korra watched as a jewel of a tear slipped from her eye, across and along the bridge of her nose. “I’m sorry,” her wife added.

“You don’t need to apologise to me.”

“This is my fault.”

“All you did to provoke them was love me.” and like that, Korra’s words formed a blanket that enveloped her with warmth. With her free hand, Korra stroked her hair from her eyes, and used he same move to weave her fingers into her locks. “Fuck them.”

“No.” Asami’s lips found a smile, and Korra’s tasted the victory of it a second later. Asami cupped her cheeks, thumb stroking the curves. The desperation in Asami’s kiss gripping something in Korra’s chest. She can not let go.

Meanwhile the heiress touched her hip as though asking for permission she already have. As Korra kissed her neck, Asami’s fingers crept into Korra’s shirt. When her palm hit scar Korra’s kisses slowed, like the music had changed, from war cry, to sweet symphony. Gravity moved in reverse, Korra beneath her raising her arms as her soft clean shirt flew up between them.

New bruises, that’s all she could see dappled over her shoulder. She could even see are dark, hard thumb print marring its zenith. For a moment she balanced her forehead against hers, eyes inhuming the dark marks, a black punch in the chest, the heel of a steel toed boots a crescent over her thigh, the strings of fingers that had crushed her upper arm.   
“Korra,” Blue met Green, made greener by the strip of red splitting her right eye brow. “I’m okay,” she lied, closing her eyes as Korra swept her own thumb gently across the graze.

“How did you stand it?…When I was so broken… and you loved me…”

Asami answered her question with a swift kiss to her jaw, her target the now feint scars parallel just peeking over Korra’s cheek.

“I watched you heal,” she told her, kissing lips that were once split, “and grow stronger,” digging her fingers into her back, once a battlefield, “day by day.”

Asami sat up, drying hair tied up except for strands teased loose, her shoulder blades arching gracefully out of her back as she rounded on Korra, swinging her leg over her waist.

“and we’re not fragile Korra,” She guided Korra’s arms back with her thumbs tracing the soft expanse of her wrists, finishing only when her thumbs pressed into her palms and her nimble body loomed over hers. “You know I was a fighter, before I met you.”

“When you were fourteen?”

“Younger, since I was three.”

“Ever since your mother passed I remember your dad saying. He said you were good. I’ve seen your attendance medals, all tangled up in that ratty ol’ shoe box.”

“Golds,” the heiress corrected, “I never lost a fight.” Korra watched her, searching her features remembering in the darkness, the pride of it all mixed with something good, and something else. “Tai Kwon Do, Judo and Krav Maga, I had weekly lessons, personal tutors, clubs, you name it, I still kneel in the neutral position at my desk some days. I competed all over,”

“You weren't doing this when I met you, the only thing I saw you do was…Mako,”

“He who shall not be named in this bed,” Asami warned. “I broke someones arm.” she admitted, ashamed, “It’s not supposed to happen, we learn to take a hit, to struggle and fall the right way but this girl she, was distracted or something, one minute I had them pinned and the next.” she shuddered, “I haven’t heard a noise like that since. I lost my appetite for it…”

Korra knew the noise of which she referred, the noise the wrists beneath Asami’s hands had made one as such.

“Until yesterday, when three men, all above my competition weight class I might add, broke into my home and tried to hurt my family. I broke two of their femurs and six of their ribs with my bare hands, pregnant, alone, before they could grab their guns. My point is, muscle memory is a wonderful thing,” she smiled, realising her rambling didn't altogether make sense. She was just trying to assure her wife that she was ok.

Korra let the weight of that wash over her. She knew Asami was skilled, she’d known since Vegas, when her fighting saved her when they were ambushed not ten minutes after they had gotten married. Danger had stalked them, and like a viper, Asami had surprised them and torn the danger to shreds before Korra knew what was even going on.

Her arms marginally pinned, she activated her core, leaned up and kissed her cheek.

“My hero.” she whispered. Asami’s grin only became more adorable at that, and Korra responded with one in kind, albeit lopsided.

Something in her chest expanded and the weight of it brought her down, tangling her fingers in a nest of silken hair. The taste of her lips then were as sweet and soft as they had ever been. She felt hands stroke the curve of her spine and soothing the ache of it. The pain burned, but whatever Korra was doing cooled. It was almost too perfect, she had an Ice Princess between her legs.

“K?” One arm drifted from her back, feeling fingertips grazing her thigh, her breath shuddered against those lips that silently said I love you.

This was what all the world was so mad about? This wonderful feeling, primal in how much she craved these moments. Korra’s hand slipping past the seam of her underwear and finding her slick heat. The athlete guided her back, sitting up, cradling her wife against her.

“This okay?” she asked, Asami’s lips responding only by straying to bite the side of her neck, hips writhing against her hand and digits inside her, strong, bruised arms stilling against her spine. A whine escaped her and eyes met, the hardness of emerald began to melt, and peace finally began to flood in for the first time in hours. It was then Korra knew, Asami was fucking to forget the world, and everything in it, except her. Each kiss connected to the last, to the first, the best, enclosed on the memories supple on her lips. She was more than happy to oblige.

The shudders didn't take long to arrive, Korra kept stroking her through it, harder, mixing in shivers and teasing an adorable ungraceful gasp from her. She felt her fingers twisting knots in her locks and responded sucking a nipple into her mouth. The warrior above her was melting, totally hers to control.

Asami keened, “I fucking love you. Kor-RA!” her back seized finally, turning her face up to the dark motel room ceiling she stared blindly as the universe pulsed through her.

When it faded she was being held, her cheek against Korra’s shoulder, both their breaths heaving.

“Ditto,” Korra told her, smiling into her temple, the one without the burgeoning scar.

The heiress couldn't help the laugh that escaped her then, she was suddenly unencumbered by the grief. Reminded how fantastic it was that she had fallen for her best friend, she reared back to look at her, skin almost golden in the lamp light from outside.

“Lie back.”

****

Korra woke to an empty bed, her heart glitches as she pawed the still warm patch beside her. She twisted and scanned the room, ramekins by the window in tact, ironing board tucked safely against the locked door. Her wife, kneeling at the dinner table, back straight, finger tracing the lines of a map.

“Asami!” The heiress jolted and grabbed her chest in shock, “Don’t do that to me,”

Asami blanched, realising how it must’ve felt to wake up alone, especially now. She unfurled her long legs and darted to the bed. Wordlessly apologised with her hands on her cheeks. Feeding her arms around her shoulders. Korra gripped her tight, but responded groggily, pulling her wife on top of her like a human blanket,

“Nice home alone traps by the way,” Asami leaned back tracing fingers over Korra’s sweat slicked shining skin.

“Nothing compared to your inventions I’m sure,” Korra yawned.

“They’re not engineering triumphs, but they’d do their jobs. You know people Korra,”

“Bad people?”

“People people.”

“Maybe I’ll become a cop like Mako if the soccer thing pans out.”

“You did lose your last match,”

“You’re right my lucky charm wasn't there.”

Korra’s smile was sad, and Asami let the scenario play out in her head. With the two of them home Korra would just be another person to attack, she was lucky to defend herself, let alone the girl who would be her cavalry only with the addition of Mako’s pistol.

What happened, happened, she told herself, she had her wife and life and now she had a plan.

“Come see.” she whispered, curling her fingers around her hand.

Suddenly Korra had a vision of her wedding night, watching Asami pants-less walk around a hotel room, leading her by the hand. Inexplicable chicken pacing the corners. These flashbacks were the good kind, they made her smile.

Asami palmed the road map on the table, red lines emboldening certain roads and circling certain places.

“Launching your next strike for the gay agenda?” Korra quipped, earning that delightful side eye from her beloved.

“Please this place is probably bugged, conspiratorial voices only.” Asami told her, kneeling on the chair again, waiting for her wife to join her, hand on the table, palm faced up.

Korra linked her fingers intuitively.

“This is your idea actually,”

“We’re getting away?” Korra breathed, relief lacing her voice.

“Yes and no. We’re not running we’re just, vacationing.

“For how long?”

“This trip, it’ll take two weeks minimum, but if we really want to enjoy this, I’d say a month.”

“On the road?”

“Think you can handle it?”

“Where do we end up?”

Asami smoothed out the next page, NY, a circle over central park, or more accurately Opal and Bolin’s wedding venue, the Central Park Zaofu.

“I figured Opal would hunt us down if we weren’t there to goad her on like she did us.”

“I think you’re projecting.”

“Maybe I just want revenge,” her eyes lit up with fierce determination, swimming with glee.

“How big will you be by then?”

“Depends what mama bear eats.”

“Mama bear eh?” Korra reached up, tracing her jaw, “better stop shaving your beard then to fit the profile.” In response Asami grazed her teeth along her closest finger.

“Speaking of shaving,” Asami ran her fingers through Korra’s locks that she loved so much.

“Oh no.” Korra’s blue eyes widened in dread.

“I have a better idea.” She has been busy, Korra thought, watching her pull the bleach from under the sink, and scissors from a cutlery drawer.

“Why with the hair change?”

“We’re famous Korra, any body with the internet three years ago knows who we are from sight. We need to change the silhouette.”

“So we stick to Amish country.”

“Name one Amish country.”

“Denmark?”

“You want the bleach or the cut.”

“What’ll you get?”

“Which ever you don’t, I don’t want to be one of those couples that look the same.” Korra gestured to her whole skin, and Asami rolled her eyes, “You know what I mean.” She lay the tools on the table.

“I love your hair.” Korra confessed, “I love running my fingers through it. Waking up with my face smothered in it, god the smell, right before you go to sleep, the shampoo is almost gone and it’s just you.”

“So I bleach it.” Asami turned the bottle on the table.

“No! That’ll ruin the smell and I mean, you can grow it back.”

“What about your smell?” the heiress countered.

“Do I really have more hair to lose though?”

“True,” Asami cupped her cheeks and dived forward to take one last deep breath. “Oh my God,”

Korra gathered her wife’s long dark locks in a tail. “You ready?”

Asami handed her the scissors.

“Let’s do it.” She balanced her forehead over hers, gazing soberly into hers eyes as she felt the metal tip against the back of her head. Korra kissed her cheek.

“Just don’t make me bald okay?”

“Who do you think cuts my hair?” The sound of the snip coursed up and down her spine.

At once she felt cold, new, strong and liberated. She leaned forward as years of her life fell from her back in Korra’s hand, her lips spongey as she kissed, heard the scissors clatter and Korra’s hand clutch the new soft hair, fluffy against the back of her neck.

“Mirror.”

“Wait,” Korra took her in, picked up the scissors to even out the sides. “Show me the back.” she ordered, diligently she turned her neck. Snip, snip, smeck. Korra’s lips pressed against the column of her neck. “I don't know what I was saying before you’re fucking gorgeous.” she murmured.

“I want to see.” she slipped from her lap and into the bath room, and saw the way her locks fell just above her chin, angled upwards with her jaw and tapered up to a fine point at the back of her head. Korra admired her handiwork from the doorway.

She looked at the stranger in her reflection, no, not the stranger.

“I look like my mom.” her palm gravitated towards her stomach.

“Is that ok?”

“I always knew I did, but the hair completes it. Perfect timing really.” Asami combed her fingers through stunted length, deja vu sweeping through her. “Now my sweet - lets make you blonde.”


End file.
